How Choose a topic of interest, spend a little time researching it, have a discussion then publish the notes - which are available on the site to read along!

Why The main benefits are the fostering of a greater understanding of the world before we die and hopefully, to prompt further thought and discussion from our listeners.

The topic we will be discussing in this episode is AI

Topic Overview

Intelligence is generally defined as an ability to obtain and accumulate knowledge from which skills are developed and applied. The exclusive purview of the Human race currently. However, futurologists and increasingly, prominent scientists, industrialists and fear mongers would have you believe that credible machine intelligence is only around the corner, given our present rate of technological sophistication. Complex mathematics, Chess, Go, language comprehension and parallel computation - skills already attendant to the growing repertoire compiled into the Artificial Intelligence canon or AI as it has become better known. Are we on the cusp of delivering the greatest aide to human flourishing ever conceived or will we unleash a hostile replacement? What of the ethics upon considering arguably conscious electronic neighbours?

Off-topic

What we’re not talking about

Iranian Caviar

Talking Points

Each bullet is a talking point. Sub-bullets are topics that may or may not be covered. Usage: Read the bullet and sub-bullets then talk about some or all sub-bullets.

AI not Artificial Intelligence

John McCarthy coined the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ in 1956

Sentient/ non-sentient

General Purpose AI or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

Typically leveraging a ‘Neural Network’ model - a sophisticated mathematical model that is incrementally changed - this is the ‘learning’ aspect

Learning like us just faster and without the same limitations

Domain Specific AI

Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)

How ELIZA is not AI

Reinforcement learning

Deep Blue 1997 IBM’s computer beat Garry Kasparov at Chess.

The Turing Test already. We’re there, it fooled me.

AlphaGo 2014 DeepMind

Go has more moves than chess than there are atoms in the universe

DeepMind - Owned by Google, Elon Musk is an investor

‘Solve intelligence. Use it to make the world a better place.’

Reinforcement learning - plays itself, millions of times to iterate and improve

Mimics human neural processing

Computing power, distributed/parallel computing

Why would business be interested?

Analysis and service with accuracy, speed for the price of electricity

Siri, Alexa, Assistant, Cortana

Fear & Future

Existential Threat

Frankenstein

WOPR

Of greater immediate concern than climate change

Ethics

Who’s accountable?

Possibly more just and less partisan than humans when considering legal matters or matters of social justice

Jobs - goodbye

Big Red Button, read only mode

weaponisation

Human enslavement, extinction

Exponential growth

Simulation

Inhuman-like rationality

Consciousness as a metric

Machine learning - the scariness of machines changing their own algorithms - this is the core fear

"My general observation is that it has been seeping into our lives in all sorts of ways, and we just don't notice; and part of the reason is because the way we think about AI is colored by popular culture," Obama said in long interview with Wired editor Scott Dadich and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab Director Joi Ito. Aug 24th, 2016

AI will be essential in the understanding of facts that humans cannot comprehend e.g. quantum physics, paradoxes, timescales etc.

Overly long dystopic depress-fest with Jude Law and the creepy kid from the Sixth Sense

Ex Machina

Her

The Terminator franchise of course.

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Matrix

The Second Renaissance

Forbidden Planet

Star Trek

Westworld

Film starring Yul Brynner before he died.

I, Robot

Transcendence

Ridley Scott

Red Dwarf

Holi/Holly

Knight rider

KITT

Star Trek

Virtuosity

Advocates & critics

Bill Gates

Sam Harris of course.

“Imagine, for instance, that we build a computer that is no more intelligent than the average team of researchers at Stanford or MIT—but, because it functions on a digital timescale, it runs a million times faster than the minds that built it. Set it humming for a week, and it would perform 20,000 years of human-level intellectual work. What are the chances that such an entity would remain content to take direction from us?”

Elon Musk

“I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful,” said Musk. “I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.”

Glossary

Terminology specific to the topic

Algorithm Instructions on how to perform a task. In terms of computer science, it’s basically: AND, OR, NOT.

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) General Purpose AI where machines can learn new skills without being fully directed by their programming.

Singularity

Wrap Up

Details about site, contacts, next show: TBC

Recording ends, postmortem recording begins

Add intro music, outro, any editing

Publish!

From the Show

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure. - Agent Smith

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Whitehouse view on the future of AI (October 12th, 2016): PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Report PDF